Selectmen reject employee insurance consultant plan

The Board of Selectmen announced it will not be signing a $6,000 per year consulting contract with Millennium Insurance, which would have provided insurance information and website sign up services for town employees.

"I do think that [town employees] would benefit by having somebody that would be a consultant and come in…maybe once or twice a week to discuss with some of the employees, wherever they might be, about some of their benefits," said Selectman Dick Sheppard at the Nov. 12 meeting.

Town Administrator Terri Ackerman agreed, and suggested checking into a shared service with other local communities to provide a human-resources person to answer any health insurance, retirement, and other benefit related questions that may arise from town employees.

A number of town residents questioned the validity of paying an outside person to perform the duties that have been historically done by the town treasurer/collector.

Resident Nancy Kristoff asked whether town employees receive a packet from the insurance company when they sign up, and wondered why that information wouldn't be enough to sustain them if they had simple benefit questions.

"That's exactly the type of stuff they should be getting, but we have nobody to do that work right now," said Ackerman, who added the town has several different insurance companies they deal with.

Resident Nancy Perry said she called the state Retirement Board when she was getting ready for that stage in her life, and asked them many questions regarding when the best time for her to retire would be, and exactly what benefits she would receive.

"When I turned the magic age that we are not going to mention, I called them and they were wonderful. They handle all of the information, and they handle [all types of insurance]," said Perry.

"Some employees have the initiative that you do…but [benefits] are the type of thing where some people need hand holding. You need a person who can guide employees through these difficult things," said Ackerman.

Current Town Treasurer/Collector Donna Erickson has offered to continue providing these insurance services, and then assess in the future whether it is taking too much time away from her other duties.